Thoma Cressey Strikes Again: Buys iTera to Merge with Vision Solutions
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

The buying spree continued last week in the i5/OS and OS/400 community, as Thoma Cressey Equity Partners announced that it was acquiring System i high availability software specialist iTera to merge it with competitor Vision Solutions. The merger of these two companies is something that has been on the minds of the top brass of these two companies for many years, according to sources, but it took a private equity firm's deep pockets to broker a truce between these two fiercely competitive HA software providers. READ MORE >

Bang for the Buck: User-Capped i5 520s Versus Windows X64 Servers
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

Nearly a month ago, IBM made a big deal about its new i5 520 Solution Edition for SAP applications, which offered dramatically better bang for the buck than regular i5 520s, and quietly announced what I am calling the user-capped i5 520 Solution Editions. Big Blue emphasized the wrong products in its announcements and public relations campaign. While an SAP box is interesting for a small number of customers, the entry user-capped i5 520 box does something more interesting: it actually competes head-to-head, and user-for-user, with Windows-based X64 servers. READ MORE >

PowerTech Issues Third Annual State of i5/OS Security Report
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

The security of any system is only as good as the methods companies use to implement access to applications, data, and operating system resources. Anyone with a PC on his or her desktop knows this intuitively these days, with the maelstrom of malware and viruses that are attacking us. But, according to the third annual state of security on the i5/OS and OS/400 platform put out by security software maker The PowerTech Group, some System i shops are not being diligent about the security of their systems. READ MORE >

The X Factor: Form Follows Function
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

In nature, the shape of an animal or a plant is the result of the interplay between the organism and its environment--the latter being the sum result of the forces at play, the competitive pressures between competing life forms, and the materials at hand with which to build and sustain the life form. In the data center, similar competitive pressures are at work on computer designs, and instead of working at periodic timescales, evolution happens over a human generation or less. But sometimes evolution is stalled by greed. READ MORE >